Abstract

The successfully realisation of a microgravity experiment, whatever its objective could be, necessarily requires a dynamical characterisation of the environment in which it takes place as complete and precise as possible. This is due to the strong influence of the levels of acceleration reached on the results of the experiment; without a detailed set of information about the former, it will not be possible a correct interpretation of the latter.
This thesis concerns the analysis of the gravity level that is possible to realise during the first mission of the Unmanned Space Vehicle (USV) developed by the Italian Aerospace Research Centre (CIRA), in the framework of the Italian National Aerospace Research Program (PRORA).
The Flying Test Bed 1 (FTB_1) is a slender, not-propelled winged vehicle, able to perform experiments in areas such as Structure and Aeroelasticity, Autonomous Guidance Navigation and Control and Thermo-Aerodynamics.
The purpose of this thesis is to verify if it could be possible to consider the FTB_1 as exploitable also for microgravity experimentation.